Paul Doherty

In my search for the perfect historical mystery, regular readers of my blog will note that I’ve become an admirer of the work of Paul Doherty. Capable of writing clever whodunnits married with a variety of rich, historical backgrounds, often including a locked room or two, he has produced some of my favourite books of recent years. As such, I’ve produced this page indexing my reviews of his work.

As of June 2013, Paul will have released 100 books, almost all of have been, or will be, available as ebooks. Below are links to his main series. The shorter ones have been grouped together as “Other Series” and there are also his standalone novels and his small number of factual historical investigations.

If you want more information, do check out Paul’s own website. It’s been recently updated and contains a fair bit of info and news, including blurbs for all the novels – click on the series titles on this page. If you want some quick recommendations, then I’ve put together my own Paul Doherty Top Five list.

Set during the reign of Edward I, Hugh Corbett (later Sir Hugh Corbett) investigates threats to the King and Country. Assisted by Ranulf-atte-Newgate, a felon saved from execution, there are seventeen books in the series to date. Paul’s longest running series and it will return in August 2016 with Dark Serpent.

Set during the reign of Richard II (the late 14th century), Brother Athelstan, secretary to the coroner of London and priest to the parish of St Erconwald’s investigates murders and mayhem in this series of ten novels. Often (but not always) features an impossible crime.

Note that these books (up to The Assassin’s Riddle) were published under the pseudonym Paul Harding, but they have been reprinted under the name Paul Doherty as well. After a break of many years, the series recommenced with Bloodstone and four books have since followed with more to come.

Ancient Egyptian conspiracies and impossible murders, investigated by Amerotke, against a vivid backdrop of a lost culture. There are seven books in the series to date, and Paul has mentioned on his website in the past a possible return to the series. Note that there is another series set in Ancient Egypt as well.

Stories told by Chaucer’s pilgrims in the evening on the way to Canterbury, these mysteries often involve a supernatural element as well as a “proper” mystery. Recently revived with The Midnight Man, hopefully there will be more from this series in the future.

Murder and intrigue at the court of Edward II. A new series, only three books so far. As the Hugh Corbett series now overlaps the period that this series – Dark Serpent is set between The Poison Maiden and The Darkening Glass – I’d guess that we won’t be seeing more from this series.

Set during the reign of Constantine the Great, as Christianity is introduced to Rome, these feature Claudia, agent of the Empress Helena. There are four books in the series to date (Domina (2002) isn’t part of this series, despite what the font of wisdom that is Wikipedia might have you believe) with hopefully more to come.

Set during the reign of Henry VIII and narrated in the first person by Sir Roger Shallot, a Falstaffian rogue, these tell of murders and plots against the backdrop of the reign of Bluff King Hal, embellished by Shallot’s somewhat unreliable boasting of his various exploits. Previously published under the pseudonym Michael Clynes, this is a series of six novels. No sign of anything new in this series for a long time, but if you want more of Henry, then Paul’s 100th book, The Last Of Days, published in June 2013, details the death of one of the most powerful – and dangerous – kings that this country has ever had.

Set in Canterbury at the end of the Wars of the Roses, these feature the apothecary Kathryn Swinbrooke and the Irish soldier Colum Murtagh. Written under the pseudonym C L Grace and, apparently, only published in the US, these were very hard to get hold of – until June 2013 when the entire series was released as ebooks.

I’ve tried to snap up as many cheap books from the main series as possible, so that I can review them in order – not sure how important that is, but can’t hurt. Some of them though, especially some of the Athelstan, are very hard to get at a reasonable price. V annoying.

After much scouring ebay and Abebooks, I’m almost complete on these series – just one or two Athelstan books to go – these definitely seem to be the hardest to find, under either name. Were these low publishing runs or are people simply reluctant to part with them?